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Life on the edge in Freedom Village
From Sohn Jie-Ae
(CNN) -- To outsiders, Taesung-dong, or Freedom Village, looks like any other quiet and well-kept farming village in South Korea. But it's not. Located on the southern side of the Demilitarized Zone which separates South and North Korea, Taesung-dong is precariously positioned between nearly one million South and North Korean soldiers who face off in an uneasy truce. Taesung-dong, guarded 24-hours a day by armed soldiers, is the only populated village in the southern section of the DMZ and one of two in the heavily guarded area, with another on the North side. Access to the village is strictly limited and its 226 residents must abide by certain rules. There is an 11:00 p.m. curfew and all movements in and out of the village are carefully monitored and controlled. Twice a year, the entire village is emptied out in an emergency evacuation drill. But there are incentives to stay. The residents -- all original inhabitants or direct descendants of the villagers who were living there when the armistice to end the Korean War was signed in 1953 -- pay no taxes and men are exempt from the two-year mandatory military service. Added to the mix are common incursions from the North along the rice paddies, which line the border. "If North Koreans come over the border, we follow the soldiers and leave the rice paddies. We wait, and when they retreat, we return to farm again," says Taesung-dong's mayor Jun Chang-Kwon. While relatively nonchalant, Jun does worry that the current nuclear standoff with the North might raise tensions in his neighborhood, He says the standoff between South and North has so far not raised tensions in his village and he hopes things will end amicably. Other residents, like 15-year-old Yoon Jae-Hee, seem to take it all in stride. "My friends ask me if I am scared, but I am really not. It's not like they are shooting at us or anything," Yoon says. Instead the North bombards Taesung-dong with propaganda messages, sprouted from loudspeakers near Kijong-dong, or Peace Village. Kijong-dong is Freedom Village's North Korean counterpart. U.S. soldiers say the northern village is deserted, with North Korean farmers bussed in in the morning to farm, and then transported out in the evening. Back in Taesung-dong, a 45-man garrison keeps a close watch. "When the residents go off the farmland, close to the military demarcation line, that time our soldiers always provide two armed soldiers," South Korean army Capt. Lim Joong-Kyu says. Lim and his men guard the village day and night, a necessary precaution for those living on the edge.
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